384 ABSURD LUXURY 



of more than one sudden death which arose from dis- 

 regard to the above rules, and many instances where 

 men have injured themselves seriously from a sudden 

 burst uphill when not fit for the work, the heart being 

 thereby overstrained. 



Young men should make it a hard and fast rule to 

 eat (though not to starve) as little as possible between 

 breakfast and dinner. There is a happy medium in all 

 thines, and nothing can well be worse than stalking on 

 a full stomach. 



It is nowadays quite a common thing to hear of 

 millionaires having champagne luncheons and five 

 or six attendants, one with dry stockings, another 

 carrying dry boots, a third with a cushion and a 

 rug, and, unless I am mistaken, in one instance one 

 such individual^ as soon as he got his feet wet, then and 

 there changed his stockings, having relays of gillies to 

 meet him at every point, with everything he could pos- 

 sibly require, during those extraordinary deer-drives, 

 which must have afforded him far less pleasure, in 

 the butchery of every wretched little beast which 

 chanced to show itself, no matter how young, than 

 fear of catching cold ; and then calling such sport ! 



It is hardly to be wondered at that the individual to 

 whom I here refer took good care to keep his per- 

 formances dark from all save his own immediate circle, 

 for no one else was ever asked to enjoy {sic) his 

 monster carnage ; and he was doubtless well aware 

 that the majority of people would not call such 

 slaughter sport. Some of the stories told of him by 

 his servants, though quite true, appear almost in- 

 credible. 



There' is, as most stalkers are aware, and as I have 



